The Best Lubricants
For Intercourse

Thanks for visiting our
site. We're Rod & Helen, a couple of professional sex therapists in a
relationship with each other. We tried dozens of lubes - and, yes, we
really did use them...what a great job that was! After endless fun research, we can now reveal our choice of the best lubricants for women
(they're mostly all good for men), as well as explaining which to
use if you're expecting a baby or trying to get pregnant, and helping you
choose which lubes to use with condoms, or for anal pleasure. Enjoy!

Read on to find out
which is the best lubricant for intercourse - and remember, lubes are all about
having great sex!

What's it all about? Lubricants for
intercourse.....why, how, when?

We aim to provide you with all the
information you need on lubricants which can make intercourse more
pleasurable. If you're a woman, you may need more lubricant if your
natural juices are a little lacking, or you may need some help after the
menopause.

Also, men and women who enjoy extended
Tantric sex or prolonged lovemaking may find that G spot stimulation
is a lot easier if they use a supplement to a woman's natural lube.

Finally, men who have been
circumcised may find that sex is more pleasurable for both them and
their female partner if they add a little lubricant for intercourse to
the head of the penis before lovemaking begins.

This is because the foreskin acts as
a seal to preserve a woman's natural vaginal secretions, whereas the
glans penis on a circumcised man can act more like a piston, and
remove the secretions from the vagina as the man thrusts during
lovemaking.

But whatever situation you're in, we
will give you all the information you need and a variety of
suggestions about which products may be most helpful.

Gone are the days when you had to
struggle with greasy and ineffective lubricants for intercourse like
Vaseline....an oil based product, which, like other petroleum oil-based
products, can damage the lining of the vagina and lead to infection.

Nowadays, there's a whole collection of
lubricants for intercourse, including ones made from plant oils, which
claim to be natural, work in harmony with your body, and have long lasting
properties.

Trouble is - in the face of such choice,
how do you find the best lubricant for women, or the best product for your
particular needs, the one that gives the most enjoyable sensations during
sexual intercourse?

It's not easy if you're starting from
scratch, so our aim is to try and make the choice easier for you. First of
all (remember we are disregarding petroleum oil-based lubes for the
reasons given above), the fundamental choice you need to make is between
silicone based products, water-soluble products (also known as water-based
lubes), and plant oil based lubes.

If you're of the school of thought which
believes only "natural" things should go into the vagina, then your choice
is restricted to the water-soluble and natural lubricants for
intercourse which we describe below.

But if you have an open mind about
silicone, you might want to try one of the silicone lubes, simply because
they do tend to be longer lasting than the water-soluble ones - the latter
may dry out and require refreshing during intercourse. Silicone is also
good for sexual activities which simply aren't compatible with water-based
lubes - such as sex under water - where a water-based lube will just wash
away.

In case this is getting a bit confusing,
let's wind back a bit.

We've already established that silicone
lubricant for intercourse has the advantage of being long-lasting, and not
washing away with ordinary water. So if you're looking for a lube that has
a persistent quality, and won't dry out, silicone is probably a good place
to start.

Because of silicone's long-lasting
qualities, it is also good for anal sex, where greater persistence is
useful. However, it's advisable not to use silicone lubricants for
intercourse in conjunction with sex toys made of silicone, because the
lubricant can dissolve the outer surface of the silicone sex toy and make
it sticky. One way to get round this problem is to cover your sex toy with
a condom before you use it with silicone-based lubricant.

Another advantage of silicone is that it is
compatible with latex condoms (although of course the same is true of
water-based sex lubricants).

If you decide to try a silicone product,
then your next decision will be about which one to buy. This can be quite
challenging, since there are many different brands of silicone lubricants
for intercourse on the market.

Our advice would be to go with a simple one
that has no additives, and which also represents good value for money. Our
favorite choice is to use own brand products from the sex toys store "Babeland."
They sell a good one called "Babelubes silicone."

Their products feel like they are
designed for women's benefit and safety as well as men and women's sexual
pleasure for intercourse!

By the way, in case you're wondering about
safety, silicone lubricants cannot pass into the bloodstream and are quite
safe (unlike silicone breast implants).

If you're still a little bit dubious about
the benefits of silicone lubricants you might want to try a water-based
lubricant for intercourse. Unfortunately, you will find the choice of these products even
more bewildering than the choice of silicone-based lubricants.

First and foremost avoid products with
glycerin or other sweetening agents which can seriously disrupt the acid /
alkali balance of the vagina and promote yeast infection.

You
might also want to avoid any lubricants for intercourse which contain Nonoxynol-9, a spermicide and contraceptive jelly ingredient, which can be extremely
irritating to the lining of the vagina and anus. It can actually cause
tiny little tears in the lining of the vagina and anus and therefore may
actually promote transmission of HIV.

Overall, once again we
recommend Babeland as suppliers because their product range does not
include any lubricants or condoms with Nonoxynol 9 as an ingredient.

Even after dismissing products with
glycerin and Nonoxynol-9, you're left with a bewildering choice, but
essentially the difference between the various sex lubes comes down to
whether they are "natural", how thick they are, and whether or not they
are flavored.

We would personally avoid any product that
contained organic paraben molecules (compounds used as preservatives)
because there is some evidence that parabens are carcinogenic.

So, if you're looking for something that is
completely natural, then you need to buy a product that is branded as
"natural" or "organic": these tend to be made from vegetable products that
are known to be safe and have not been tested on animals. Note that this
may include plant oils, and as such you may not be able to use a latex
condom with them.

Examples include Babeland Naturals Organic lubricant, and
Sliquid Organics, and
Firefly natural lubricant (which is an updated version of the first
certified organic lube to be made in the United States, originally called
Nude), and a product range called
Yes!, made from
Aloe Vera (Yes! also have an oil based range - made from natural plant
oils, that is).

There are plenty of other lubricants for
intercourse
available which contain greater or lesser amounts of chemicals that
promote slipperiness, water retention, or act as preservatives. Whether or
not you object to these depends partly on personal choice, and, more
practically, on whether or not these products produce an adverse reaction
when you use them.

One of the most commonly known products is
called
Astroglide, which contains polypropylene glycol; there's nothing
inherently wrong with this; as we say, it's a matter of personal choice,
and it's a popular product which is both effective and safe (it uses
grapefruit extract as a preservative).

Apart from the need to refresh some of
the water-based lubricants during intercourse with a spray of water every
so often, one of the facts that you might need to take into account when
making your choice of lube for lovemaking is how much sensation you're
able to achieve when you use any of these lubricants for intercourse.

Vaginal lubricant, though slippery, is
somewhat thin; the thicker the product, the more likely that sensation
will be dulled: this may not matter during anal intercourse, where
persistent and thick lubricant is probably a real bonus, but it may matter
significantly during vaginal intercourse, where you don't want your
pleasure to be dulled by an excessively slippery product.

Friction
produces feeling! Slipperiness promotes pleasure - but only up to a point.

When a woman is naturally "too" lubricated her man loses the pleasant
feeling of sliding his glans penis against her vaginal walls - excessive
lube can have the same effect. If this is a problem for you, then start
with one of the thinner lubricants like Astroglide or
Babelands Natural.

OUR
SELECTION OF THE BEST LUBES FOR INTERCOURSE

Just in case you want
to get your best lube for intercourse right now, without further ado, just
click on your chosen link below and go to the product page from
our chosen suppliers (needless to say, all very carefully
selected).
All these products are SAFE to use internally.

1 The best lubricants for
vaginal intercourse without condoms - click below on the links

Some pretty slippery artificial lubes (i.e. not oil or plant based compounds)

Notes: The link for "Lubricants
containing herbal natural plant
extracts" takes you to one of our
favorite lubricant products - Aloe Cadabra - at Amazon.com, where it is
available for sale. You can also get it from
BetterSex.com (search
for Aloe Cadabra lubricant.) For the purest natural lubes, we recommend
food grade grape seed oil. This does not affect the vaginal tissue and is
a great massage oil too! It gives beautiful sex with no vaginal
irritation, and real pleasure.

PreSeed is generally recognized as having
least effect on sperm survival and motility.

6 The best lubricant
for sex for a pregnant
couple

We suggest a water based lube such as Babeland Organic
Lubricant.

Want to make sex
better? Then get some of the great lubricants for intercourse we recommend
above.

By the way, we researched
this subject extensively and came up with a few surprises. The most
interesting fact is that 25% of couples use lube regularly. In fact, so
many couples use lube that we decided to write a short and simple guide to
the best lubricants for women (almost any lube is a good lube for men!).

We tried them all out ourselves and modified our suggestions based on
what we enjoyed and what we didn't!

And remember - slippery
sex is fun sex - easy for her, better for him. It doesn't matter why you
need a lube - there are probably as many reasons for using it as there are
women. Menopause, pregnancy, whatever...it's so easy to add that missing
ingredient when a woman's natural moisture needs a little extra help.

Whatever you want, whether it's natural, organic, artificial, oily, water
based, silicone based, we can help you make a good choice. Read on to find
out more about the best lubes for sex.

Why Do You Need Lubricants For
Intercourse?

You may have had a time during sex when
you found that your girlfriend's vagina was very dry, despite her being
willing and enthusiastic about being intimate with you. This will hurt
her, chafe both of you, and generally add nothing to the pleasure of
sexual intercourse.

You can try using your saliva when it
happens, but this tends not to last, and although it can be useful in the
short term it's only a stopgap while you wait for her own vaginal
lubrication to start flowing. And, if it doesn't, lubricated condoms
aren't much good, even if you like the sensation of making love wearing a
condom, which of course many men, and quite a lot of women, don't. So,
what you going to do?

The best answer is undoubtedly to use a
lubricant for intercourse. They are the quickest, simplest and
probably the most effective solution to vaginal dryness, no matter
what the cause. This can be hormonal or mood related, or
stress-related, or even just the way girl is made. Let's focus here on
solution rather than cause: vaginal lubricants can ease your way to a
great time whenever you need them.

In addition, they can serve to
prolong love-making when a girl dries up during extended sex, and they
can make masturbation much more comfortable for a man who's been
circumcised.

An unexpected benefit of lube - and plenty
of it - is that the reduced friction of penis in vagina during thrusting
can help to make a man control his ejaculation and give him the gift of
preventing a man from
coming too soon and lasting longer in bed than he normally would.

You may find the idea that a lubricant
can forestall premature ejaculation a little strange - surely, you may
think, the more slippery the environment, the quicker he comes?

Well, no, the fact is that reduced
friction due to an abundance of natural secretions or excess lube can
actually slow a man's ejaculation down.

You may have experienced something
similar when the female partner's vagina is extremely wet with her natural
lubrication (produced by the vaginal walls) and the man complains of a
loss of sensation.

The Wettest Orgasms

Finally, even if you don't think you
need lubrication for sexual intercourse, was asked you may well be delighted
at the sensation if you try it. And that's not only when you're
wanting a quickie with minimal foreplay – if you have a girl who takes
a long time to get juicy, lubricants for intercourse can make the job
much easier for both of you.

There are three main categories of
lube today: water-based, silicon-based, and oil-based. It's obvious
that you can never use an oil-based lubricant with a condom, since
it'll destroy the fabric of the condom very quickly.

Avoid things like Crisco or Vaseline,
because they stick around too long and they are very hard to remove
from intimate tissue. The only kind of oil based lubes we can
recommend are gentle oils like sweet almond oil.

In any case because of the properties
we've already mentioned, oil-based lubes of any kind are strictly for
intimate couples who are committed to each other and know each other's
sexual history. Another factor to beware of is that oil inside the
vagina is not helpful for some women – it can promote vaginal
infection if she's a susceptible type. Otherwise, gentle oil based
lubes can be very helpful in promoting great intercourse.

The most popular lubes come in the
water-based category, because they don't affect tissue, and they're
easy to wash off with, surprisingly enough, just a little warm water
and maybe some soap. However, they do tend to dry out, although you
can get over this by just having a little water at hand to reapply
when they begin to dry up.

Alternatively of course, you can just
reapply the lubricant. However, interrupting sex to apply more water
all lubricant might not be the most romantic thing for either you or
your girl, so it's worth keeping that drawback in mind. Naturally
enough, water-based lubricant for intercourse has the advantage being
completely compatible with all condoms. You'll need to watch out for
those that contain glycerin, because, like oil-based lubricants,
that's a product that can promote infection in susceptible women.

Health Issues - A SideBar

Please, if you have any health
issues, get them cleared up - that way you will enjoy sex much more.
Sadly, when I developed gout I did nothing about it for quite
some time, and of course it got worse.

Yet the simple - and in
retrospect obvious - fact is that if I had done something about it in
a timely way, the build up of uric acid crystals in my big toe joint
would never have got so bad - and then of course I would never have
been so distracted by the pain that my partner and I simply couldn't
focus on lovemaking (or anything else!). I seriously recommend that if
you have gout you click
here, and if you have any other health issue, you seek appropriate
medical help.

There are a number of water-based
lubricants had been on the market some time, and the most popular
amongst them is Astroglide. This is a little bit thin but it's
certainly very slippery and its long-lasting, and it's widely
available.

In fact, if you've never tried lube before, this is the one
to start with. For those who want something more long-lasting and
thicker, there's a product called Maximus, which is probably a good
one to use if you're into anal pleasure and you need plenty of lube
that has lots of staying power.

There's a product called "Yes, Yes,
Yes!" – a name which doesn't leave much to the imagination, I guess!
However it has aloe vera in and therefore its popular with holistic
health fans.

Another one we recommend is called "O'My", which may be a
corny name but the product has the advantage of being completely
organic whilst still maintaining good slipperiness and comparatively
long-lasting lubrication power. If you are worried about artificial
chemicals and additives, this is certainly the product for you!

Overall, it's
probably just as good as Astroglide. Another popular product is called
"Wet", which is again like Astroglide quality and comes in various
flavors, which makes it great for oral sex.

Have you heard of "Slippery stuff gel"?
It falls somewhere in the marketplace between Astroglide and Maximus:
again, whether it's right for you as a lubricant for intercourse is
just personal preference, so it's worth trying out if you have any
doubts about any of the other products.

We don't recommend the old favorite KY
jelly, simply because it dries out far too quickly. In any case, it
was designed for medical use such as gynecological examinations, not
for sexual intercourse. If you use a lubricant for intercourse, choose
one that was made for that purpose!

So finally, what about silicone-based
lubes? Well, there much longer lasting water-based lubes, but they are
also much greasier. They're safe with condoms, and you can even use
them underwater. However, some people really don't like them because
they have such a greasy quality – again, it's a matter of personal
preference. The most common varieties are "Wet Platinum" and "Eros
Body Glide".

Why Are Lubricants Important?

A new study by Indiana University
found that women reported higher levels of sexual satisfaction and
pleasure with lubes.

The study of 2,400 women, is the
largest ever conducted, despite the wide availability of lubricant and
little research about how personal lubricants contribute to sex. Debby
Herbenick, of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion said: "Use of
lubricant is linked to sexual pleasure and satisfaction and low levels
of symptoms." Participants reported fewer symptoms of irritation (and
presumably of yeast infections)* and genital pain when they used a
water-based lubricant compared to silicone lubes.

Director of the Center and co-author
of the study, Michael Rees said lubricants are an important safer sex
tool, used with latex condoms. Lubricants important to safer sex and
contribute to the quality of sex."

Here are some of the findings:

More than 70 percent of the time
participants indicated that they used lube to make sex more
pleasurable.

When lubricant was used for
vaginal sex, anal sex or masturbation, women said it was "more fun".

Lubricant is also used to reduce
the risk of skin injury or tearing, especially in anal intercourse.

For the study, women between 18 and
68 took part in a double-blind review of the use of six lubricants
during solo masturbation and partnered sex. Women used one of six
lubricants, four water-based and two silicone-based, for two weeks.

From more than 10,000 episodes of
vaginal intercourse, and 3,000 episodes of masturbation, sexual
pleasure and sexual satisfaction were greater with any lubricant
compared to sex without a lubricant. Anal intercourse was rare, but
again sexual pleasure and satisfaction were higher when lubricant was
used compared to sex without a lubricant.

For all types of sex using lube,
symptoms of friction and infection were rarely reported and were less
likely to occur with the use of lubricant. Women mostly applied lube
to their own or their partner's genitals.

The Best Lubricants For
Intercourse

Personal lubricants (lubes) are used
during sexual activity to reduce friction between penis and vagina or any
other body parts that may be employed for stimulation during foreplay,
intercourse, oral or anal sex, and masturbation.

They may also reduce friction when
applied to sex toys and can ease penetration. Water-based personal
lubricants are, as the name suggests, water-soluble and seem to be the
most widely-applied sexual lubricants.

The highly advanced products available
today include ingredients designed to aid dispersal, retention of water,
and sterility. The viscosity of these products depends ion the amount of
water added - this alters the concentration of the main gel-forming
hydrophilic ingredient. Water-based personal lubricants can be absorbed
into skin or may even evaporate, which means they have a tendency to dry
out during sexual activity.

Adding more water or reapplying the lubricant
will reactivate it, though a sticky residue may be left behind. More
modern lubes are formulated with harmless natural skin moisturizers,
including carrageenan, which can prevent residue being left behind after
evaporation. Carrageenan inhibits human papillomavirus infection.

Carraguard, an aqueous gel with carrageenan as a main ingredient functions
as a bacterial- and micro-bicide, and may therefore be useful in
preventing transmission of HIV as well as HPV. Water-based lubricants tend
to be incompatible with sexual activity which takes place in bathtub,
pool, or hot tub, as they (obviously) dissolve in water.

A 2011 study by the Population Council
found that many water-based lubricants tested damaged human rectal cells
and those containing polyquaternium-15 actively increase HIV replication
in cell cultures. This appears to increase risk of HIV transmission.

Even
so, safe sex requires water-based lubes to be used because they do not
denature condoms as oil-based lubricants may do, and it is the condom
which protects users from HIV. Without any lube, condoms are likely to
break, and trauma to the rectal lining will still occur. Silicone-based
lubricants may be an alternative; while lubricants and creams containing
the spermicide nonoxynol-9 are known to damage cells and make users more
vulnerable to HIV.

Oil-based lubricants increase the
likelihood of condom breakage and slipping and may create tiny holes in
the latex. Oil-based lubricants are therefore only good for people who are
in relationships where they do not need to use condoms, and who wish to
avoid compounds found in other lubricants.

Fertility lubricants, a.k.a.
sperm-friendly lubricants, are designed to be safe for couples trying to
conceive. Fertility lubricants match the body's pH and
osmolality so they
are safe for sperm. They are also free of chemicals that may harm sperm.

In total, fertility lubricants do not harm viability or motility of sperm.
When the lube contains calcium and magnesium ions and has a pH and osmolality range that is similar to that of the vagina, the chances of
conceiving are maximized.

Couples trying to conceive need to choose
a lubricant carefully. Most personal lubricants, may damage sperm and keep
them from swimming normally, and are not recommended for use if pregnancy
is the objective of sex.

Many personal lubricants today are
"organic", such as Yes!, Intimate Organics, and Sliquid. Many of these
lubricants are "natural" and do not contain paraben, glycerin, DEA or
animal-based ingredients. Some contain compounds such as aloe vera or
other plant extracts.

Silicone-based lubricants often have less
than four ingredients, no water, and a different sensation from
water-based personal lubricants. They are not absorbed by either skin or
mucus membranes, so last longer than water-based lubricants.

Silicone-based lubricants do not increase the risk of HIV transmission in
the course of anal intercourse, unlike some water-based lubes have.
However, silicone-based lubricants are not suited for use with sex toys
made from silicone because the formula dissolves the surface, so it
becomes sticky to touch, and disintegrates over time, allowing bacteria to
breed.